We were on the train now, counting down the minutes until we drove into the city. Drake was holding Ivy’s hand. Even though she wasn’t conscious, I knew she’d have appreciated the gesture anyway. Mina, Roden, and Kinley were standing guard over our prisoners—at least what few we’d managed to catch this time. When we were swarmed, survival had trumped the need for prisoners. I only hoped the Legion saw it the same way. They were funny about things like that.

“Ok, see you in half an hour,” Captain Somerset spoke into her phone, then tucked it into her jacket.

I was sitting next to her, eavesdropping on her conversation with Nero and Harker. She hadn’t even tried to shoo me away.

“You were right,” she told me with a sigh. “The vampires the Legion tortured for these locations knew they were sending us into a trap. The same thing that happened to us happened to Nero’s and Harker’s groups. This is bigger than vampires being turned outside of the system. We all infiltrated sites that were supposed to be just vampires, but we each found a lot more.”

“Is everyone all right?” I asked.

“There were no casualties on our side,” she replied to my great relief. There had been enough death already.

“What’s going on?” I asked. “Who is behind this?”

“Demons.”

That single word stunned me to silence.

“It’s demons,” she continued. “And they aren’t only turning vampires. They are also turning shifters and getting witches to defect. The bodies we found over the past few days were the people they were unable to turn to their side. They’re building an army to challenge the gods.”

“Why don’t they just use the monsters?” I wondered. “They control them, right?”

Captain Somerset lowered her voice to hardly above a whisper. “No.”

“No?” I whispered back.

She leaned in closer. “What I’m going to tell you doesn’t leave the Legion. No one can know about it. Not your friends or family. No one.”

I nodded.

“In the war of gods and demons, it wasn’t just the demons who unleashed the monsters,” she said. “The gods and the demons both did. As the war escalated, they bred stronger and more resilient monsters to fight the other side’s monsters. But they lost control of them. The beasts would no longer obey their masters’ commands. The monsters tore across the Earth, devastating it rather than attacking the other side’s army. In the end, the gods won the war. They pushed the demons back to their realm. But it was too late. They and the demons had made the monsters too strong. Too resilient to magic.”

“And that’s why the gods gave humanity magic,” I realized. “That’s why they built the wall.”

It hadn’t been an act of mercy. They were only trying to mitigate the mess that they themselves had made.

“Yes,” she said. “The gods needed us to help them rebuild the Earth. Two hundred years later, the battle for this Earth still rages on. What we do here at the Legion is important.”

The gods gave us magic and strength that empowered us to slay their enemies. We were the next generation of monsters. And now the demons were trying to build their own next generation of monsters too.

The revelation was troubling—but not surprising. Humans were nothing but tools to the gods, something to be used. Well, I was going to use them right on back to save Zane. Dark angels had taken him, and that meant demons. So I was going to side with the gods. For now. I just wouldn’t tell them about Zane.

17

Perfect Balance

When I entered the Legion’s medical ward, I half-expected to find Ivy sitting up, chatting and charming the healers. Instead, I found her asleep and hooked up to an assortment of Magitech machines. The healers assured me that Ivy was just fine, that they’d put her to sleep to allow the magic to fully heal her body, but it was hard to believe them when I walked into that. A pink box of cookies from Ivy’s mother sat on the table, unopened. I hoped the Legion was at least giving the poor woman regular updates on Ivy’s condition. From the frequent care packages she sent her, it was clear that she really loved her daughter.

I left the room, feeling useless and frustrated. Harker caught up with me halfway down the hall. He met my gaze, and I saw pity in his eyes.

“Come on. Let’s walk,” he said, taking my hand.

As we stepped outside, I caught a glimpse of Nero on the other end of the hallway. He was watching our every move, but he didn’t take a step toward us.

Harker waited until we’d passed into the waterlily gardens before he spoke again. “How are you holding up?”

“I’m fine.” I rubbed my hands against my arms, trying to drive out the chill that had taken root in my soul. “I’m not the one who’s lying unconscious in the medical ward. Or in a grave.” I shuddered.

“This isn’t about just our bodies, Leda. It’s just as much—no, even more so—about our minds. You have never killed anyone before today. But we are soldiers in an army, fighting a war. And in war, there are casualties. People die. That is what soldiers—what we—do.”

“I’ve fought people before.”

“You’ve wounded them, you’ve shot them full of magic tranquilizers. But this is different. The Legion strips away your innocence.” He set his steady hands over my shaking ones. “The adrenaline is crashing and you’re beginning to process what you’ve done.”